Apalachee Province

Map detail showing northwestern Florida, including the region of the Spanish Apalachee Province. This area was the scene of the 1704 Apalachee massacre, but does not accurately represent the location of all of the missions affected.

Apalachee Province was the area in the Panhandle of the present-day U.S. state of Florida inhabited by the Native American peoples known as the Apalachee at the time of European contact. The southernmost extent of the Mississippian culture, the Apalachee lived in what is now Leon County, Wakulla County and Jefferson County.^[1] The name was in use during the early period of European exploration. During Spanish colonization, the Apalachee Province became as one of the four major provinces in the Spanish mission system, the others being the Timucua Province, (between the St. Johns and Suwanee Rivers), the Mocama Province (along the Atlantic coast of what is now northern Florida and southern Georgia) and the Guale Province (along the Georgia coast north of the Altamaha River).

History

Around 12,000 years ago, bands of indigenous peoples roamed the hilltops and lake shores of what are now Leon County and Jefferson County. They lived by hunting, fishing and gathering. Eventually they became more settled, making stone tools, pottery, and then domesticating plants. By 1000 A.D., the indigenous people developed agriculture and cultivated numerous plants, particularly varieties of maize, as the main staple food. Native Americans lived in scattered villages made up of farmsteads but gradually developed agricultural surpluses that allowed more population density.

Apalachee Province was closely linked by trading and cultural exchange to other Native American cultures throughout the interior Southeast, including the later Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). As many as 60,000 people lived in 40 towns scattered through the area.^[2][3] Production of surpluses of maize aided in the growth of towns and more complex cultures. The elite organized workers to construct complex earthwork mounds for religious, political and ceremonial purposes.^[4]

The historical Apalachee occupied the Velda Mound site from about 1450 CE-1625 CE, although they mostly abandoned the site soon after the beginning of the Spanish Mission Period, c. 1565. After the Spanish began colonization and brought in missions, they called this cultural area the Apalachee Province.

The Apalachee Province was heavily depopulated with Carolina Governor James Moore's raids into the area during Queen Anne's War. Most of the Spanish missions in the province were destroyed during the Apalachee massacre.

Towns

• Anhaica was the capital of Apalachee Province, located near Myers Park in Tallahassee.
• Lake Jackson Mound site is located on the southern shore of Lake Jackson.
• Velda Mound was the center of an older town located north of Tallahassee. It is now within the Killearn Estates neighborhood.^[5]

Notes

References

• The Apalachee and Mission San Luis

External links

• Woodville Karst Plain Project
• Leon County Public Works
• Mission San Luis

Mississippian and related cultures
List of Mississippian sites Mound builder (people) Timeline of Mississippi valley
Middle Mississippian	American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Mound and Village Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake John Chapman Kuhn Station Larson Lunsford-Pulcher McCune Mitchell Orendorf Sleeth Steed-Kisker culture Sugarloaf Mound Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams Dogtooth Bend Kincaid Mounds Marshall Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Twin Mounds Ware Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel Phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Mound Bottom Riverview Mounds Archaeological Site Sellars Indian Mound Obion Mounds Old Town Swallow Bluff Island Mounds Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Phase Boyd Mounds Campbell Chucalissa Eaker Menard-Hodges Murphy Mound Parkin Nodena Phase Nodena Site Tipton Phase Tunica Walls Phase
South Appalachian Mississippian	Adamson Mounds Site Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Bussell Island Chauga Mound Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa chiefdom Dallas Phase Dyar Etowah Mounds Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar Phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Site Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek Phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Mound Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah Phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Mounds Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Mound Summerour Toqua Town Creek Indian Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks
Fort Walton culture	Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin-Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Mounds Leon-Jefferson Culture Letchworth Mounds Velda Mound Yon
Pensacola culture	Bottle Creek Indian Mounds Dauphin Island Fort Walton Mound Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people
Plaquemine Mississippian	Anna Emerald Mound Fitzhugh Mounds Flowery Mound Foster's Mound Ghost Site Mounds Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Mounds Julice Mound Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Mounds Natchez Pocahontas Mounds Routh Mounds Scott Place Mounds Sims Taensa Transylvania Mounds Venable Mound Winterville
Caddoan Mississippian	Battle Mound Belcher Mound Bluffton Mound Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Mounds Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Spiro Mounds
Upper Mississippian cultures	Oneota Beattie Park Mound Group Blood Run Hartley Fort State Preserve Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village
Culture	Artwork Emmons mask Long-nosed god maskette Mississippian copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian stone statuary Shell gorget Languages Caddoan languages Central Algonquian languages Cherokee language Mobilian Jargon Muskogean languages Natchez language Siouan languages Timucua language Tunica language Yuchi language Religion Ballgame Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther
Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Maize Mill Creek chert de Soto Expedition

Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek Complex Caborn-Welborn Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites Leon-Jefferson Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Tchefuncte Tocobaga Troyville
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick Clovis burial Bandelier National Monument The Bluff Point Stoneworks Cahokia Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Archaeological State Park Eaker Effigy Mounds National Monument Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Site Fort Ancient Fort Center Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Glenwood Grimes Point Holly Bluff Site Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds L'Anse aux Meadows Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena Site Ocmulgee National Monument Old Stone Fort Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Recapture Canyon Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Russell Cave National Monument Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Spiro Mounds SunWatch Taos Pueblo Toltec Mounds Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River site West Oak Forest Earthlodge Winterville Wupatki National Monument
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Minnesota Woman Spirit Cave mummy
Miscellaneous	Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of the Americas Piasa Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Portal of Indigenous peoples of North America Pre-Columbian era

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